Oxford plans for its fifth stage of the Oxford Trail System expansion will make it easier for students to bike or walk to school next year. In November 2023, the city announced plans for Phase 5 of the trails, which is expected to be constructed in 2025, according to the Oxford Area Trails Website.
“Phase 5 will connect the middle school over to the high school, so we’re going to have the ability to get all of these neighborhoods to connect to both the middle school and high school,” Oxford’s Assistant City Manager Jessica Greene said. “The high school has no busing and the middle school has no busing if you live within two miles.”
Phase 5 of the trail will encompass 2.38 miles overall: the East West portion running 1.71 miles and the North South .67 miles, according to the Oxford Area Trails Website.
The City of Oxford has been planning and building several trails and bike paths around the town since 2017. The trail renovation project is known as the Oxford Area Trail System (OATS). The City of Oxford has already completed four of these phases, the most recent having finished in August of this year.
Oxford is working alongside Miami University police to ensure these trails will be safe for students. “It is going to be monitored by both Miami Police Department and the City of Oxford Police Department, and I think they have a special vehicle they will use on that path,” Talawanda School District Director of Communications & Public Engagement Holli Hansel said.
“The high school facility is primarily where most of our athletic facilities are,” Hansel said. “So the trails will provide greater accessibility.”
While the middle school has some facilities, Talawanda High School is home to a weight room and an outdoor sports complex. Talawanda High School has extracurricular programs like cross country and marching band that are open to middle schoolers, according to Hansel.
“The trail also connects up north to the new multimodal station that is being built right now on Chestnut Street,” Greene said. The station, whose production is led by the Butler County Regional Transit Authority (BCRTA) with Miami University, will also be the site of a future Amtrak location, set to be built in 2027, according to Greene.
“One of the reasons we’re interested in Amtrak is that it’s along the Cardinal line, which goes from Chicago to Washington D.C.” Greene said. Miami University has a lot of affiliation with the Cardinal line, therefore Oxford hopes they can attract more day visitors with this rail stop, according to Greene.
With the expansion of the trails, a new Amtrak station and the incoming multimodal station, Oxford residents have many things to look forward to and easier methods of traveling, whether that is by buses, trains or walking within Oxford.
“Communities that have a multi-use path are ranked very high for quality of life when they have outdoor exercise opportunities,” Hansel said.
